Asus is reportedly looking to throw its hat in the 8-inch Windows tablet ring, with a contender known at the moment only by an extremely cryptic model number: M80TA.

The company’s first ever smaller than 10-inch slate with pre-loaded Windows 8.1 has been spotted at several European online retailers, albeit no one has pics of the device yet or ETAs. What Lambdatek over in the UK does have is bits and pieces of the thing’s spec sheet.

No idea if they’re accurate, so be sure to take them with the proverbial pinch of salt: quad-core Intel Z3740 “Bay Trail” CPU, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB SSD, 8-inch panel with unknown resolution and stylus pen support.

As far as the codename goes, the listing checks out, since the support section on Asus’ official website seems to confirm a gadget going by that moniker is indeed coming. Plus, not sure if you remember, but a while back an FCC approval brought to light a series of mysterious Asus-made tabs, one of which carried the M80T “branding”.

Along with the Windows-powered gizmo, the federal agency gave its stamp of approval to a version running Android and another one possibly capable of dual-booting the operating systems. Is the entire trio destined to sport 8-inch screens? Hard to say.

Back to the M80TA, Lambdatek has it priced at roughly $530 (£327.52), but that’s no indication of the MSRP. Officially, the 8-incher can’t top, say, $350, and may even sell for $300. CES 2014 in January should fully uncover it, unless a formal intro won’t be precipitated by today’s spill of information. Either way, we’ll get the scoop, so keep in touch.